Glimpses of Life – Page 100

Minnesota Weather

Minnesota weather is really rather interesting.

Before moving here, I was told that Minnesota has a “dry” cold. Not sure what that meant exactly.

Now I do. It is very dry. Scratch, scratch, scratch. I feel itchy all over sometimes. It’s important to stay hydrated and using a good lotion is also important.

We use CeraVe — also recommended by Dr. Oz for dry skin.

CeraVe

Another interesting tidbit — chapstick is sold in 3’s instead of the usual 1 like what I’m used to seeing in Seattle. I’m sure you can find a single one but every time I’ve looked, they have sold them in a pack of 3.

ChapStick

My asthma has not kicked in yet either. Good news as I thought for sure I’d be spending a lot of time in the emergency room. My breath has only been “taken away” once since I’ve been here and I haven’t had to use an inhaler to stop its continuance. I simply put a warm glove over my mouth until I arrived at a warm place.

I just need to stay out of the cold north winds and then I’m fine.

The Hippo Pet

We have heard of people who have unusual pets. Snakes, lizards, pigs, and monkeys are a few on the list.

But a hippopotamus? Seems a little absurd to me. But then, life has a lot of absurdity as viewed in the Youtube video below.

Unbelievable! This will be what heaven will be like. Man no longer having to fear the animal world.

House Hunting

Blah! Why can’t house hunting be easy?

If my husband didn’t work, we could house hunt all day and still have a life. Since he works (not that I’m complaining about that), we have evenings and Sundays to house hunt. Not much time to view too many homes.

It’s not that we’re picky. All we want is an updated house on a treed lot. Not an updated house with no trees. Not a treed lot with a fixer upper.

Bleah!

Kudos to our realtor, Bridget Crepeau from Edina Realty, for having the patience of Job in continuing to help us find the right home.

Hudson, Wisconsin

This home is located in Hudson, Wisconsin just a few minutes from I94 and is a short sale (the price of the home is worth less than the mortgage that is owed).

Hudson, Wisconsin Home

Only the front of the home is brick — the rest has siding. The backyard is large and further back are tennis courts and a public playground. There is also a golf course.

We peeked through the front door and the dining room is on the right, the living room on the left and the stairs to the second floor are offset to the left.

Unfortunately, the back is not very treed so it’s not very private. It’s not a home that we wish to view but we found it interesting.

Cottage Grove, Mn

Woodbury, Minnesota, where we live, has streets that are mainly clear even though we have had snow almost every day this month.

Not so in some of the smaller towns like Cottage Grove, Minnesota. Driving through this street felt quite bumpy and icy. And we’re expecting more snow tonight.

Cottage Grove, Minnesota

Cottage Grove, Mn

While driving around in Cottage Grove, Minnesota, we came across a house we thought might be a possibility for us to view for a possible purchase.

Cottage Grove, Minnesota

The house sits up on a hill on 70th St. S. It looks pretty and next to it, on the right, is its detached garage.

Unfortunately, I think this house was a “hold-out.” By this, I mean that the owners probably received an offer to buy their house and land so that a large development could build on it. Instead, they said no and the picture below shows what the property around it looks like.

Cottage Grove, Minnesota

Cookie cutter houses — built by a large developer — surround the house on both sides.

This reminds me of a house in Seattle where the owner, an elderly woman, refused to sell her house to condo developers. Click here to read that story.

This might be a nice house but unfortunately, we don’t want to live in a house surrounded by a large development.

House hunting in Wisconsin and Minnesota

Our second offer on a house has been denied. Again, they counter-offered but only $5K less and we are thousands of dollars apart.

The sellers can’t accept anything lower than what they priced the house for and the comparable sold homes in the area do not substantiate their price. That’s strike two for sellers.

The house that’s on a treed property with a master bedroom and guest bedroom on the main floor continues to elude us.

We continue to look, but we may have to wait until spring for more homes to come on the market or we’ll have to try to get a home that is already in short sale status or bank owned status.

Life has not been easy as this is getting a bit wearisome. No reason for a buyer in this market to settle though.

Minnesota & Wisconsin House Hunting

This evening we made our second offer on a house.

We are finding a lot of homes that our overpriced. This causes some alarm because we can’t make a full price (or anywhere near full price) offer on a house as the sellers can’t take anything less than full price or they will sell their house as a short sale, i.e. the house will sell for less than what they owe on their mortgage. Nor do we want to overpay for a house in a depressed neighborhood.

Hearing news of many foreclosures coming down the road, this article says some people should consider buying a foreclosed home in 2011.

For now, we will wait to see if our offer is accepted. If not, we will continue looking for a house that is in a neighborhood where the values have not gone down so much. That’s getting a little hard to find.